Rockin' in Costa

Rockin’ in Costa Rica

   Rock & Roll made its initial impact in Central America in the late 1980s when national radio stations started playing popular songs of the time and local bands began writing their own material in Spanish and started getting broader airplay, outside their immediate vicinity. Of course, cable TV and MTV were major contributing factors as well. But the Eighties was the cradle here and the culture embraced it and rocked with it. Recently, Papaya Music released “Costa Rica Rock & Pop”, a compilation of some of the landmark bands from Costa Rica, covering the last twenty-plus years. Some of them enjoyed lengthy careers, spanning decades, and some had meteoric but monumental ones.

Gandhi

  The first band out of the gate on this twelve song disc is Gandhi, with “Senor Caballero”. The song is their first release in three years, prepping the audience for a new CD, due out this year. The band has a ten year history, with four successful LPs under their collective belt. It’s a great opening number because it rocks hard, setting the stage for the rest of this compilation. Next up is “Profanar”, by Suite Doble, fronted by Marta Fonseca and Bernal Villegas. Marta has a career that has bridged musical genres and generations. She is one of the most recognizable pop starts in Costa Rica. Villegas is a prolific rock musician whose name will appear several times in this review. He is probably not the godfather of Costa Rock, but perhaps he is the god-uncle.

Suite Doble Live

      The quartet 50 al Norte is known for being the first rock band in Costa to use horns. By the way, there guitarist was a guy named Bernal Villegas. During their brief history, from 1990-1993, they released only one, self-titled CD, from which “Dime Que Puedo Hacer”, their contribution, comes from. And no Costa Rica compilation would be complete without a song by Jose Capmany, the cornerstone of the band Café con Leche. Jose has been referred to as “the Father of Tico Rock” and is represented here by one of his most recognizable songs, “El Barco”. Capmany died tragically in an automobile accident in 2001 at the age of forty.

   The next song, “No Podras”, is by a group called Inconsciente Colectivo, the brainchild of Patricio Barraza, the singer/songwriter, guitarist and pianist who put the band on the map when the won first place at the 1992 Yamaha Pop Festival and received the award for Best National Rock Group the following year. The song is from their only CD, released in 1994. In addition, there are contributions from the band El Parque, who enjoyed a twelve year career, and Raquel, who’s single CD was released on the international Sony/CBS label. Another interesting entry is “Raton de Pelucha”, by a four-piece band called Hormigas en la Pared (HELP), from their self-titled 1999 CD. This band is as alternative, non-mainstream as they get, yet they enjoyed a lot of notoriety, demonstrating just how much Costa Ricans understand Rock & Roll.

      Costa Rica Rock & Pop is available at Jaime Peligro in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Nuevo Arenal where they will gladly sample the music for the customers. All comments concerning this article are welcome.